Dick
Dale’s surf guitar is strapped to his side and plugged in.
Beach
Boys
harmonies drift with the breeze from a cheap portable
radio. An
endless cascade of Pacific waves pound an expansive warm and sandy
California beach. Then a stranger from Mars asks,
“What
is an ocean wave?” What
would you say?

Try
this -- An ocean wave is energy transmitted in a
spring-like motion through water. It initiateswith
a disturbance
(energy) that causeswater
molecules to squeeze (compress)
and then expand
(rarefact) into
neighboring water molecules. This
compression rarefaction cycle continues until the wave
terminates on the beach.

Surf’sUp

The surf report is more
important than a traditional weather report for many in the communities of Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach California. For their
sake let's construct an
assessment of the consistency, the power,
and the
length of the rides
they can expect.
For
example,
the length of the ride or wavelengthcan be described as the distance
traveled by one wave cycle.
A cycle begins at a wave's crest, continues to its
bottom, then
up to the next crest. The consistency
orfrequencyof
the waves can be expressed
by how many cycles occur over a period of time: per hour,
per minute.
The powercan
be objectively
gauged by the height or amplitude
of the wave at the crest
of each cycle. However the backdrop of a
vast horizon in an expansive ocean can distort the
perceived height of the wave and mask its objective power. Therefore offer a multiplier of the objective power that expresses the waves perceived or subjective
intensity.

But what does this have to do
with audio and video?

All
energy -- such as the
acoustical energy of sound and theelectromagnetic energy of visible light and radio -- is a
wave that can
be described by its wavelength,
frequency, amplitude, and when applicable its subjective intensity.